Patrick Habirora is moving different: PFL’s next star on Netflix, fanfare and Benson Henderson

Patrick Habirora was one of the first names that sprung to mind when PFL headman John Martin floated the idea of allowing PFL fighters to compete on MVP MMA’s offerings . Two years ago in Paris, the roar that greeted “The Belgian Bomber” for his PFL debut — just Habirora’s second pro fight — heralded the arrival of a new star for the promotion. He’s turned every arena he’s headlined since into a bubbling cauldron, and there’s no doubt he will do that for a second time in Brussels this Saturday when he faces former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson in PFL’s latest European showcase.

It’s not just the fighting that attracts the masses to Habirora, or his signature “Flashball” knockouts — he simply moves different to his peers. The 25-year-old welterweight has been endorsed by the great Georges St. Pierre, he’s appeared in viral videos alongside football god Zinedine Zidane and he’s had 80,000 people burst with glee when he randomly appeared on stage at a Belgian music festival.

More recently, there have been rumors of him striking up a friendship with Belgian royalty, as in the literal Princess of Belgium, Delphine de Saxe Cobourg. Now being counted among the big players at PFL alongside Dakota Ditcheva, Cedric Doumbé, and Usman Nurmagomedov, how does the amateur world champion stay grounded? Patrick Habirora vs Kevin Jousset during PFL Lyon at the LDLC Arena, in Lyon, France on December 13, 2025.

“You need to not change your circle of friends,” Habirora told Uncrowned. “People often make the mistake, when everything is going well for them, they change everything; their friends, even places they used to go to eat. You know, they only eat at two Michelin star places and they stop hanging out with the guys who supported them on the way up.